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hen 12 inches of puffy, compactible, play-worthy snow
plop down from the sky, it’s hard for residents around
baltimore ave. in West Philadelphia not to feel the sting:
a huge swath of Clark Park, the crown jewel of the neighborhood, is shut down for renovations. a gate surrounds part “a” of
the park, on 43rd Street between baltimore and chester avenues,
and a giant yellow sign proudly stating “another milestone in
Philadelphia’s Progress” sits where the entrance once was.
On monday, the temptation to climb over the 7-foot-high fence
must have been great, but as of about 6 p.m., no one had. not a
single footprint dotted the pure-white snow inside.
“It’s awful,” said a young woman in braids, walking by with her
dog, adding, “They’ve cut down 34 trees. They’re putting in more
pavement.”
Indeed, the renovations — though aimed at providing better
drainage, improved paths and more lighting — are the subject of
no small controversy. The clark Park revitalization, which has
been in the works for the last 10 years, has drawn criticism from
various locals, including eco-artist aaron Birk, who wrote this
September in an e-mail to City Paper and others, “clark Park is
going to be clear-cut in the next day or so. There is now a chainlink construction fence preventing anyone from setting foot in the
park,” adding, “Let me know if you’re interested in helping organize an emergency sit-in. i have a 50-watt megaphone.”

but according to the Friends of Clark Park, only 24 trees have
been removed and that’s because they’re old, diseased or invasive.
“These trees were selected for removal after consultation with
arborists from the morris arboretum,” says Brian Siano, vice
president of the Friends. “and preserving the tree canopy was one
of the most important goals we had.”
but both sides can at least agree on one thing: The park is missed.
“It sucks that it’s closed,” lamented the girl with braids, when,
suddenly, a deep voice yelped from the other side of the park — the
still-open part “b,” known as the bowl for
its concave shape — in a way that means
only one thing: sledding.
“I bet the bowl’s still poppin’, though,”
she added.

They’ll
kick you,
he says.

—holly Otterbein

: Sherwood ForeSt
as the winds picked up and the temperature dropped monday
night, 52-year-old david brown descended into the city’s vast
underground subway concourse and, armed with a pile of
blankets, set up camp for the night.
He wasn’t the only one: The concourse, known to cops and the
homeless alike as Sherwood Forest for its maze of pillars and
under-the-radar inhabitants, is the nightly place of respite for
many of the city’s homeless (City Paper first wrote about the de
facto homeless encampment in 2008 [cover Story, “notes From
underground,” matt Stroud, June 12, 2008].)
While the city’s shelters are, indeed, near capacity, brown’s deci-

sion to avoid them is his own. Like a lot of
longtime-homeless folks — he’s been on
the streets for 15 years — he avoids the
city’s shelters whenever possible, preferring his freedom to the rules, restrictions and risks of the shelter system.

and despite a winter initiative to provide
extra beds in the cold months, as well as an
official citywide “code blue” alert that
has outreach teams trolling the city in a
special effort to offer shelter to the homeless, some, like brown, simply decline.
That same night, says dainette mintz,
director of the city’s Office of Supportive
Housing, outreach workers made contact
with 60 individuals, but wound up transporting only six to facilities offering temporary shelter. even so, 92 out of 110 spots
at the city’s homeless “cafés” — bare-bones
operations aimed at the chronically homeless who refuse to enter the formal shelter
system — were occupied that night. In all,
OSH-contracted facilities housed 2,710
people across the city on monday.
The choice to go it alone comes, brown
concedes, with its own perils — the latest
among them, he says, being high school
kids who’ve been coming through and
>>> continued on adjacent page

the naked city

A Million Stories
<<< continued from previous page

abusing sleeping homeless people.
“When they come off school, they’ll throw bottles at you, throw water
on you, kick you,” brown says. “Last night they just kicked a guy, two
young kids kicked a guy right in the head and threw a bottle at
him. … now you got to sleep with one eye open and one eye closed.”
but even beyond that threat, brown has a particularly strong
aversion to shelters, he says, because of his health condition: He
has aIdS, and that makes things more complicated still. To fight
the disease, brown consumes a daily cocktail of drugs: “When I’m
out here, I take it at the right time. ... When I go to the ridge shelter, they take my medication, and they give it you when they want
to give it to you,” he explains. “and they tell the people in there that
I’ve got full-blown aIdS. … Then guys think they can catch it just
by sleeping by me or taking a shower behind me.”
and so brown prefers to keep to himself. “They put you out at 7 o’clock
in the morning, then I go in the Gallery or I walk around. … the hard
thing is finding something to eat. Soup kitchens close at a certain time, and when you’re tired you just can’t always catch them.”
—isaiah thompson

: Out in the cOld
On a related note, Mayor Michael nutter was paid a surprise
visit last week by activists with the aIdS advocacy group aCt UP
Philadelphia, who showed up at the mayor’s house on dec. 22 to
give His Honor a hearty, if unconventional, caroling.

“We wish you would fund aIdS housing (3x), so we won’t get
sick,” went one verse.
acT uP is known for adding dramatic flare to its actions — but the
group is deadly serious about its mission to advocate for people
with aIdS, and has taken an increasingly aggressive stand on the
issue of homeless people with aIdS in particular over the last year.
according to a recent report by acT uP, the number of people on
a city-managed waiting list for aIdS-specific housing assistance
is growing. and while the shelter system itself may have capacity,
advocates agree with david brown that shelters are not good
places for people with aidS. eight people with HIV, meanwhile,
died in the streets or in the shelter system in the past 18 months.
“Had they been housed, and had a place to take medication,” says
acT uP member Jose demarco, “they wouldn’t be dead.”
In november, acT uP joined other advocates and students to
stage a “die in” in front of city Hall as part of their campaign to
persuade nutter to set aside $2 million to $4 million — no small sum
— for permanent housing for people with aIdS. The mayor did, in
fact, meet with the group, but, demarco says, made no promises.
mayoral spokesman mark mcdonald tells cP, “We’ve barely
begun the budget process. … It’s a long way from being able to say
what will happen.
“It’s their job to argue for what they believe in,” he adds. “but
the mayor has huge competing interests to balance.”
The group intends to ramp up pressure in anticipation of the
mayor’s proposed budget, in which they still hope to see the funds.
“comcast gets big tax breaks,” says demarco. “How about giving
—i.t.
human beings a break?”

The Year in infamY
➤ If there’s one thIng the lull in between christmas and new

year’s is good for, it’s hot toddies. If there’s two, it’s hot toddies and
end-of-the-year lists! So grab the former and enjoy the latter, man
Overboard!’s roughly chronological list of the year’s skeeziest.
January: The state legislature passes a massive overnight bill
that legalizes table games in Pennsylvania casinos — oh, and grants
them and their lobbyists a few dozen other favors, among them the
power to extend credit to table games and slots players.
February: The Philadelphia School district releases a report
blaming an attack on a group of asian students at South Philly
High on “gang related” violence, rather than racial targeting, as
the kids claimed, based on an unsubstantiated allegation by a
school official about Hao Luu, a Vietnamese student who was himself jumped the day before the infamous attack. The district has
since retracted that claim; Lu now attends a private school.
early March: casino mogul Steve Wynn announces he’s taking
over the flailing Foxwoods casino project, telling investors in a
phone conference that he’s really, really excited about “the proximity
[of Foxwoods] to the Vietnamese neighborhood” — confirming fears
of casino predation among asian-american activists who vehemently opposed a proposed relocation to chinatown. He later backs out.
late March: Philadelphia government takes on the powers that
be and … gets a whooping when mayor michael nutter proposes a
tax on sweetened beverages. big beverage lobbyists storm in with

dubious claims about job losses if the tax passes — which it doesn’t.
May: despite warnings from department of conservation and
natural resources officials, Gov. ed rendell authorizes the most
recent in a series of leases of state forest land for gas drilling. Later,
after his proposed tax on gas production is defeated, the governor
signs an executive order banning more leasing of state forest, which
incoming Gov. Tom corbett immediately pledges to overturn.
meanwhile, Philadelphia city council is in a jam: They’ve rejected
the mayor’s sweetened beverage tax, but can’t seem to balance the
budget themselves. a 12 percent hike in the property tax would do it,
but … 12 just seems so big: So they propose, in true dollar-store fashion, a 9.9 percent hike instead, leaving a $20 million hole.
July/august: Scandal! The Inquirer reveals that plans for
a new family court building
involve a massive conflict of
interests involving Supreme
court chief Justice ronald d.
castille, who, it will later turn
out, has also received thousands of dollars worth of gifts and favors from law firms that come
before him, as well.
Police commissioner charles ramsey, meanwhile, pledges to
root out police corruption after a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by
the Daily News on police officers (allegedly) systematically robbing
bodegas. and after a sting nabbing three officers selling heroin.
and the robbery of a bar by an on-duty officer. and the federal indictment of a prominent police inspector for allegedly paying someone
to extract money from a private debtor. What else? The Philadelphia
Housing authority, according to an ongoing series by the Inquirer,
was riddled with sexual harassment allegations, and a culture of
“fiefdom and abuse” under former PHa head carl Greene.
november: attorney General Tom corbett wins in his bid for

The Chinese
are kicking
our butt!

•

REIKI

[ the naked city ]

governor using vast amounts of money from
the marcellus Shale gas drilling industry.
upon winning, he appoints a gas industry
magnate to the head of his transition team;
maintains his firm opposition to imposing a tax on what is potentially the most
lucrative new industry in Pa.; and calls
department of environmental Protection
secretary John Hanger, who demands that
corbett show his commitment to environmental regulations, a “sore loser.”
december: The winter of our discontent. The media, apparently bored, or cold,
or something, spends a week roasting
nutter over his decision to support changing the “christmas Village” to a “Holiday
Village.” Then, a big snow storm hits and
the nFL, eagles and the city agree to
postpone a game for two days, prompting
barely-Gov. ed rendell to comment that:
“The chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in china do you think the
chinese would have called off the game?”
a Happy new year from mO! and
the crew!
Isaiah Thompson would never call off a football

game. He would also never call for a football game.
E-mail him at isaiah.thompson@citypaper.net.

The Light Research Laboratory at Thomas Jefferson University is looking
for healthy men, ages 31-53, able to maintain stable 8-hour sleep schedules
and to spend 3 days in our lab studying the effects of light on the body.
Must also be under 6-feet tall.

To see if you qualify and obtain more information,
contact Melissa at tju.alertness@gmail.com.

can say this because I grew up there: Southwest
Philly is a mess.
When Philadelphians think of the area west
of the Schuylkill and south of Grays Ferry — if
they think of it at all — it’s because they’re cutting through it on the way to the airport.
SWP is the home of the auto mall and junk
yards. It’s where you can hit any number of sleazy strip clubs and never, ever be found out. Businesses
are shuttered along shopping corridors like Woodland
Avenue, and the ones left open aren’t particularly
welcoming. Police blotters are filled with petty crimes.
With less than 1 percent of the area covered by trees,
you get no shade from the heat that blasts the tiny
rowhomes lining most blocks. In the summer, the lack
of oxygen is palpable.
The expanse of land owned and operated by oil refineries here is long, desolate and gray. It doesn’t help
that those refineries sit across from a bolt of property
known as Jerry’s Corner, where The Pleasure Garden
swingers club, Charlie’s Dream 24-hour porn shop
and the C-level stripper haven Purple Orchid reside
on a devil’s triangle of lust and disgust. When you look
up and see the there-forever Boys & Girls Club billboard with a young Denzel Washington that reads “Be
Inspired,” all you can think to yourself is, “How?”
This might be the last place you’d expect to find
a revolution in fresh green anything. But for developer and prodigal son Brian O’Neill, a graduate of

Our Lady of Lourdes school at 63rd and Lancaster,
and Sonny DiCrecchio, executive director of the
Philadelphia Regional Produce Market — the longoutgrown South Philly distribution center where
large-scale operations like grocery stores and restaurant suppliers get their goods — Southwest is perfect.
“There’s no place left within city limits with this sort
of land mass,” says O’Neill.
In just a few weeks, many in the region will see the
fruit of their labors: the Philadelphia Wholesale
Produce Market (PWPM), a years-in-construction,
decade-in-the-works, state-of-the-art wholesale produce distribution center that will be, depending on
how you measure it, the biggest or second biggest in
the country (along with New York’s Hunts Point).
“I’m very familiar with this area,” says O’Neill with
a Cheshire Cat grin as his glasses slip to the tip of his
nose. Though his real estate investment and development company is headquartered in King of Prussia,
O’Neill Properties buys, recycles and renovates lots of
abandoned lots: surplus brownfield, industrial and military real estate all over the country. Ask him how his
home area has changed for the worse, and he demurs.
“It doesn’t disturb me. I see a change for the better. And
it’s going to get better what with the proximity to I-95
and the airport. For what Sonny wants, this is perfect.”
N “ALL THE BEST. ALL RIGHT HERE,” reads a
sign at 6700 Essington Ave. It’s cold but not yet wintry

when I first hit the still-in-construction PWPM. On
opening day, the $200 million facility — DiCrecchio
calls it the “world’s largest refrigerator” — will be
700,000 square feet on nearly 48 acres with another
15-plus-acre staging lot at 61st Street.
Now, all you can see from the highway are rows
of blank gray garage doors and the trucks of building
suppliers. It’s been more or less like this since October
2008 when O’Neill Properties broke ground on the
new facility, after its former occupants — five junk and
scrap yards — got cleaned up by the Essington Avenue
Partners II (an O’Neill Properties affiliate) and the
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
removed scrap metal and a reported 400,000 tires.
In a trailer near the emerging superstructure hangs
a photo rendering of the facility done in 2008. One
worker, observing me scribbling, looks at it. “Very accurate, isn’t it?” he smirks. “Look how blue the sky is and
how appealing the workers all look.” That’s when Nick
Peetros, senior project manager, grabs me for a tour.
The Delaware County native shuffles between pallet
jacks to point out ramps and covered shelters that run
the length of the market for smaller trade customers
and restaurants whose trucks can’t actually reach the
docking station.
“Basically the entire periphery of the building is
for loading and unloading,” he says before leading me
inside to the center concourse where buyers
will walk and look at product from 26 vendors,

a&e | the agenda | food | classifieds

ing, which includes $152.5 million from the state of
Pennsylvania that Rendell and Fumo pulled together,
a $50 million loan from American International
Group Inc. (AIG), an $11 million low-interest loan
from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment
Authority (PENNVEST), a $3 million grant from
the federal Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and $1 million per year for 10 years
from the Pennsylvania Department of Community
and Economic Development.
The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority is the landlord on the property, with the market vendors repaying
100 percent of the grants and loans over the life of the
40-year lease.
After 40 years, the market can buy the property. “For
$1,” says O’Neill.
Not that anything gets done quite that easily.
The Eastwick Project Area Committee (EPAC) had

parcel of land that he wanted to unload. “He didn’t
know what to do with it,” smiles O’Neill, who did what
he does: He bought that property as well as most of the
rest of the block for “tens of millions of dollars, a great
deal.” While he won’t comment on what else in the area
he’s buying, all O’Neill can say is that he is buying.
He’d bought 40 acres, close to the amount DiCrecchio
was looking for when the Navy Yard fell through for
the second time.
O’Neill went to Rendell and then-state Sen. Vince
Fumo and said he could build the new market for less
than it had been value engineered at — $218 million
instead of $260 million. A deal was struck.
The Port Authority of Philadelphia purchased O’Neill’s
40 acres and 23 nearby acres that the Philadelphia
Industrial Development Corp. owned at the start of the
project in 2008.
The deal became a mix of private and public financ-

issues with possible traffic jam-ups. But the combination of a food distribution center grossing $1.5 billion
annually, the removal of all that refuse and the possibility of jobs won out. (EPAC’s longtime president,
Elvira Rosalinda Stewart, passed in June 2010, and the
committee’s phones have since been disconnected.) As a
result, PWPM is shooting to be fully operational by the
end of January rather than the recent Dec. 15 target.
“The neighborhood committee may have been wary
at first, but once we added traffic lights and turning
lanes designed to ease the flow coming in and out
of 67th and Essington, they saw the benefits,” says
Peetros. “It’s a rough neighborhood. Between the junk
yards and the strip clubs, it ain’t the Main Line. But
it’s not the worst neighborhood I’ve built in. Any place
where it’s not just for locals dumping trash
is a good thing.”
(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

N THIS MASSIVE PROJECT — currently employing
more than 1,500 people, and expected to create a multitude of new jobs and employers, including some from
Southwest Philly — had the most clichéd of beginnings.
“One day I just started drawing out plans on a napkin,”
says Sonny DiCrecchio.
After running his own refrigeration business for
25 years, DiCrecchio took over as the Galloway Street
market’s executive director in 2000. A year later, he
started dreaming up plans for a more modern facility.
After realizing that retrofitting Galloway could cost
upward of $90 million — and leave its existing merchants and vendors high and dry during the process
— it became obvious that a new facility was the answer.
Easier said than done.
There had long been talk of getting aid from the city
and the state. In the 1990s, even as recently as 2004,
New Jersey cities such as Camden and Gloucester
just across the river had been offered as alternative
sites, but loyalty to Pennsylvania was key to the market’s stockholders.
DiCrecchio recalls the back-and-forth of locations
and money worries as an equal mix of comedy and
drama. There was the Navy Yard, where Gov. Ed
Rendell announced some 70 acres would be made

available in 2005, and again in 2007. In between, Pier
98 at Oregon Avenue and Columbus Boulevard was
proposed, too.
“We had a ground-breaking [at the Navy Yard] and
everything, but suddenly it got too expensive, according
to the governor,” says DiCrecchio, recalling the day he
heard the news. He’d gone sailing with his daughter in
Florida — “my only day off in years” — only to be interrupted by a call informing him that Rendell was on television calling off the deal. “I was so pissed off, I threw
my laptop, a blue one, in the lagoon. Two days later, I’m
on one of those little boats in the lagoon — BOOM. The
boat stopped. I got knocked out when my boat hit … my
blue laptop. I couldn’t win for losing.”
Starting over seemed unlikely until O’Neill — who
had heard about the project from one friend and the
Essington Avenue land mass from another — entered
the picture. In 2004, an associate of O’Neill’s had a

the naked city

purchase it and have it delivered to their trucks.
Getting it all done in one
place is important. PWPM
(pwpm.net), with its enclosed
224 loading docks and 127
spaces at its nearby staging
lot, will be nearly twice the size of that 350,000-squarefoot, 150-dock facility near the sports complex on South
Galloway Street. And it makes possible PWPM’s treasured first: It will be a 100 percent refrigerated facility
— the entire building — designed to prevent breaking
the cold chain from truck to loading docks to cold
storage at the distribution center. The building is constructed of steel, concrete and insulated metal panels
5 inches thick for energy efficiency and refrigeration.
The Galloway Street facility had become too small
to accommodate all that loading and unloading, sometimes leaving produce to sit on loading docks in wait.
That’s the problem with open-air terminal markets,
the industry standard at locations such as Baltimore’s
Jessup Market and Hunts Point: You break the cold
chain as soon as you pull up to the dock. “We had to get
up to the times. Food safety was becoming an issue as
we found out that rising temperatures were causing
food-borne illnesses — to say nothing of the shrinkage.
You cut days off the shelf life of most produce just by
leaving it in a box on the side in 80- to 99-degree heat.”
Here, 26 vendors will utilize 33 units. One unit, they
say, will be used as a test kitchen; another is intended
for use in a cooking show. (Unlike the Galloway site,
the public will be very much welcome here.) Three
large vessels hold refrigerant in different stages of the
liquid-to-vapor cycle and several compressors circulate throughout the building, with all content areas
kept at 50 degrees — all controlled via the Internet.
“I’ve worked on difficult projects, but this is the only
property I’ve ever had with a brain, a personality and
changeable limbs,” says O’Neill.

smoking again. To vote “yes” rather than CasiNO
when asked because, man, I really hate that my
South Philly ain’t getting a Foxwoods. And to kill animals — a bag of sweet kittens, perhaps — then say
I’m sorry and get a great job without worrying about
remorse or consequence. Worked in 2010. ➤ I’ll
call this a rumor because it ain’t yet fact: It looks as
if Four Corners maestro Avram Hornik is thisclose
to signing a deal to turn Spaghetti Warehouse on
10th and Spring Garden (closed as of 14 days ago)
into a live music venue/bar with food. Hornik fans’ll
remember that he tried buying the boarded-up
Global Thrift on Front and Girard (once the legendary Jumbo Theater) in 2008 but was thwarted by
KensFishington associations because they didn’t
want noise (the El is pretty quiet!) and hated that
Hornik dissed Old City for being too loud (as he
was part of making it so) during town meetings.
So now it’ll be a pasta ballroom blitz sandwiched
between Polaris and Electric Factory. Oompah.
Hornik’s Drinker’s at 19th and Chestnut also has
an orange sticker on its upstairs window — is he
looking to expand? ➤ Excited to hear the 11 new
tracks the reunited Dead Milkmen recorded at
South Street Sounds Studio (with newest member
Dandrew, supposedly called that since no one
knows his name); doubly excited to hear SSSStudio
owner/Milkmen producer Jeffrey W.’s new reggae/oddball jazz ensemble South Street Sounds.
So to the Troc’s Balcony I’ll head Jan. 5 to catch
up with that, Josh Winer’s equally reggae-riffic
Cultureal and saxophonist David Fishkin’s postWest Philadelphia Orchestra ensemble. ➤ While
I was standing in line at DiBruno’s and finding out
about its new Ardmore cheeserie (see citypaper.
net/mealticket), I heard that Peter McAndrews
will relocate Paesano’s to the South Ninth location that once was Bebe’s Barbecue and open his
new Sicilian spot, Monsù, at the current Paesano’s
corner of Ninth and Christian, all around the second/
third week of Jan’ry. That’s about the same time
Pat Cancelliere’s long-awaited Italian-Argentine
943 will open on that Italian Market block. Atza nize.
➤ Regis Philbin will be on break Jan. 24-28, and
Live with Regis and Kelly will utilize radio hosts
to co-host with Kelly Ripa. Some Philly finalists
you can vote in include WYSP’s Danny Bonaduce,
WMMR’s Preston Elliot, Q102’s Elvis Duran or the
douche who still goes out with Alicia Lane, ex-Q
guy Chris Booker, now in L.A. ➤ Remember last
week Ice mentioned the rush to get Speck, the
solo restaurant from chef Shola Olunloyo, open
in the Piazza at Schmidts by December’s end?
Not gonna happen for at least several weeks. ➤
More ice at citypaper.net/criticalmass.
(amorosi@citypaper.net)

OPPOSITES ATTRACT:
Uncle Boonmee Who Can
Recall His Past Lives (left)
and Dogtooth made our
critics’ picks for best films
of the year.
KiCK the MaChine/VerVe

[ flick crit picks ]

Top 21 Movies of 2010
➤ 12th & Delaware

rachel Grady and Heidi ewing train their cameras on two establishments located across the street from each other in Fort Pierce,
Fla.: the pro-life Pregnancy care center and the abortion clinic
someone calls the “competition,” a Woman’s World. everyone has a
story and no one feels easy, as clients, counselors and providers all
make hard choices each day. as doctors feel threatened by protesters, young women are regularly traumatized. —Cindy Fuchs
➤ Carlos
More on:
Olivier assayas’ biopic of ’70s terrorist carlos
the Jackal is epic in length — five-plus hours
— but breathlessly compelling, infused with rich
detail and precise character study. Its subject is
a narcissist and sociopath even as he sees himself as an idealistic
freedom fighter. Édgar ramírez lends the title role an intense
physicality, but assayas surrounds him with a geopolitical history
depicted through players whose self-interest takes on a global
scale. —Shaun Brady

citypaper.net

➤ Catfish

critics be damned: This is the year’s best Facebook movie. The
Social Network leaves enough space for viewers to read their own

insights into it, but Henry Joost and ariel Schulman’s doc actually
does the work, exploring just how the explosion in online interaction
is redefining what it means to be someone’s “friend.” —Sam Adams
➤ CertifieD Copy

beginning with a lecture arguing for the validity of imitation in
art, abbas Kiarastomi’s playfully profound examination of life and
aesthetics, marriage and art focuses on two characters whose relationship is constantly redefining itself. The great Iranian director
thus creates an ever-renewing present informed by pasts real or
invented — and ultimately, what’s the difference? —S.B.
➤ Dogtooth

read it as a political allegory, an
essay on the dark side of helicopter
parenting or simply a modern-day
horror story, it’s the most unsettling movie of the year, for the captive children’s boneless posture
alone. —S.A.

Overlong, excessive, indulgent, bordering on ridiculous — Gaspar
noé’s first-person account of a murdered junkie’s Tibetan-inspired
afterlife travels is all of these, and they may not even be its bad
points. Enter the Void is a gritty, hallucinogenic head trip whose
sentimentality is as extreme as its provocations, and seizes the
potential of image-making as an act of visual assault. —S.B.
>>> continued on adjacent page

the naked city | feature

[ dressed up in hoodies and flip-flops ]
➤ Exit through thE gift Shop

real or fake? Wrong question, or rather, wrong answer. The first
feature from street-art provocateur banksy introduces us to — or,
if you like, creates — his doppelganger, Thierry Guetta, a fannish
disciple turned pretender to the throne. Those who assume it’s all a
put-on underestimate how credulous the art world can be. —S.A.
➤ four LionS

destined, or doomed, to be a cult classic, chris morris’ bittersweet
satire straps an Ied to the war on terror’s sacred cows — or is it
sheep? Winning fans on both sides of the aisle, the film skewers
the blinkered lunacy of Islamic extremists, then mourns the West’s
inability to outsmart idiots. —S.A.
➤ i Am LovE

Planning their holiday journey home, factory workers chen Suqin
and Zhang changhua are hardly happy. When they left their village
16 years ago, they left their children with their own parents. now
their daughter Qin, 17, is resentful, and the parents’ sacrifices seem
for naught. Lixin Fan’s remarkable film reveals the pain of all parties, as well as the complexities of so many different truths. —C.F.
➤ mothEr

➤ thE oAth

➤ thE SociAL nEtwork

Written with the velocity and snap of a screwball comedy and
directed with the urgency of a psychological thriller, aaron Sorkin
and david Fincher’s account of
the founding of Facebook unfolds
with the immediacy of modern
communication. yet there’s also
something classic in its turns of
betrayal and power, even dressed
up in hoodies and flip-flops. —S.B.

amir bar-Lev’s documentary, about the nFL star-turned-soldier
whose death at the hands of gung-ho comrades was turned into a
Pr charade, will enrage you to your core, and serves as an object
lesson in the difference between “supporting the troops” and
respecting them. —S.A.
➤ uncLE BoonmEE who cAn rEcALL hiS pASt LivES

The fantastic and the mundane share a table in this Thai film.
The title character’s slowly impending death from kidney failure
opens a passageway between living and dead. but that’s already
too concrete a description of a film that is more concerned with
the sensuous tinge of memory than with anything resembling
narrative. —S.B.
➤ wAr Don Don
Splice

Best in Books

Laura Poitras’ extraordinary film begins as a portrait of former
jihadist abu Jandal, currently driving a cab in yemen, parenting
his young son and looking back on the fate of his brother-in-law,
detained at Guantánamo until the Supreme court ruled against
the bush administration. It turns into a series of reflections on
documentary truths, subjects and performances. brilliant and
subtle, it’s the year’s best feature film. —C.F.

Who knew sheep would be so fascinating or so beautiful?
Tracking a herd through montana mountains, over three months
and covering 150 miles, this superb film is part parable, part
poetry, observing daily labor and attending to emotional details.
as the herders ponder their lots, the sheep keep moving. —C.F.

Mother

shelflife
Justin Bauer, under the covers

Taking the Special court for Sierra Leone’s war crimes trial of Issa

>>> continued on page 18

17

>>> continued on page 18

reading are two different things.
It’s no trouble to map out the former, bookended
on one side by Stieg Larsson’s last novel, which
claimed the best-selling hardcover fiction slot, and
on the other by the Time magazine cover anointing Jonathan Franzen as his generation’s Great
American Novelist.
The year in reading, on the other hand, is a much
more private affair, insulated from sales figures and
publicity campaigns, dictated instead by what a
writer does and how that works on an individual
audience. It draws on a restricted economy of time
and attention, where every choice represents a
trade-off. Even as a critic, the hundred-odd novels
I read this year meant picking up, with high expectations, David Mitchell’s disappointing Thousand
Autumns of Jacob de Zoet instead of a half-dozen
other books with lower expectations and maybe
higher payoffs.
Here are 10 novels — and moments in them
— that pay off impressively:
Even if Justin Cronin’s The Passage (Ballantine,
June 8) staggers because of its genre and length
— that’s close to 800 pages of zombie vampire
apocalypse — the clean and lucid attention paid to
details and incidentals, like the early scene where
an inmate confides that he “had been a Christian
man himself from time to time” to the born-again
husband of a victim, displays a technique able to
bear that weight.
The opening chapter — the opening lines, even
— of Joe Hill’s Horns (Morrow, Feb. 16) gives a

obsession in the story of a mother who will go to any length to clear
her mentally challenged son of a murder charge. bong Joon-ho
never makes the same movie twice, but each feels like the product
of years of preparation. —S.A.

the agenda | food | classifieds

<<< continued from previous page

a&e

Top 21 Movies of 2010

feature | the naked city

Top 21 Movies of 2010

classifieds | food | the agenda

a&e

An anarchic passion
or a stalkerish prelude to violence.
Sesay as a point of departure, Rebecca Richman
Cohen’s doc considers not only legal mechanisms, but also how the law is refracted in media.
Literally, the film shows multiple screens and monitors, the various ways Sesay is portrayed by accusers and defenders. Metaphorically, it looks at the
relative meanings of morality, the effects of politics
and poverty on judgments and expectations. —C.F.

through the distortions of a lovesick man, a fanciful cinephile —
or both. His obsessive romance
is thus either an anarchic passion or a stalkerish prelude to
violence. The kinked narrative
seems to follow a wholly interior
(il)logic, amplifying tangents
and finally abandoning its characters for a self-immolating final
swerve. —S.B.

➤ White Material

➤ Winter’s Bone

Set in an unnamed African nation devolving into
chaos, Claire Denis’ film captures the sense of
confusion and constricted vision inherent in rapidly changing conditions. Isabelle Huppert plays
a French coffee plantation owner whose refusal
to acknowledge the dire state of her surroundings
extends from the cultural to the familial. Told
with elliptical concision, White Material suggests
that those seemingly closest to us can become as
unknowable as true strangers. —S.B.

Debra Granik’s meditation
on family is somber, witty and
strangely hopeful. Traipsing
through her far-flung Ozarks
community, a 17-year-old girl
discovers her missing father’s
past has left his kin deeply in
debt and at risk. As adults abandon her, she’s determined to keep
the cabin where she lives with
her siblings and incapacitated
mother, so she solves a series of
grim, neo-noir mysteries. And
she survives. —C.F.

James Hynes’ house
party set to Sticky
Fingers explains the
Rolling Stones better
than Keith Richards.
lesson in how to pull off outlandish high-concept. Hill presents
the unbelievable as entirely natural, and he reveals his details
slowly: “His belief was not required; his disbelief was of no
consequence. The horns were always there when he reached
up to touch them.”
James Hynes may have pulled off an almost-unfair surprise
ending in Next (Little Brown, March 9), but his rendition of a college house party set to Sticky Fingers explains Rolling Stones
songs much better than anything in Keith Richards’ Life.
The first shift in voice that Nicole Krauss makes in Great
House (Norton, Oct. 5) — made up of four novellas, each cut
in half and laced together — is disorienting and complete,
as she goes from a natural voice (American, female, urban)
to a wholly new one just as convincingly.
The chapter that follows the first shocking discovery, in
China Miéville’s Kraken (Ballantine, June 29), begins with:
“The police arrived at last, coming in a stampy gang.” That
perfect adjective gets followed in the next sentence by “benthic,” and a few lines on, there’s a rubbishy wind and a klaggy
squirrel. If Miéville’s plotting isn’t as apposite as his diction,
it’s close.
The intentional lack of tension, the stretched-out moments of
waiting and boredom in Emily St. John Mandel’s The Singer’s

Gun (Unbridled, May 4), excellently upends
its thriller plot, making a book nominally
about a gun into something capacious and
sun-baked.
The amount of pathos and surprise Paul
Murray crams into the space between
the death scene that opens Skippy Dies
(Faber & Faber, Aug. 31) and its repetition
is impressive, but doesn’t nearly match
the heartbreaking scene between Skippy’s
crush and his podgy roommate, both looking for answers following that death.
Julie Orringer’s complete surrender
to the sweep and the heightened emotions of old-fashioned historical romance
made The Invisible Bridge (Knopf, May
4) a perfect example of why clichés and
old fashions still work.
John Reimringer’s thumbnail father-son
tour of the bars of St. Paul, glimpsed through
a car window, exemplifies the lived-in
sense of place, rooted and unshowy, that
his novel Vestments (Milkweed, Sept.
7) and Milkweed Press are both so very
good at.
And, in a similar way, Dennis Tafoya’s
junkie’s-eye view of Philadelphia in The
Wolves of Fairmount Park (Minotaur,
June 22) features the city as an immersive element of the story, seeping through
and dyeing everything, making his novel
inextricable from its hometown setting.
(j_bauer@citypaper.net)

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATRES AND SHOWTIMES
No passes or discount tickets accepted.

C I T Y PA P E R . N E T / M O V I E S

devout outdoorsman/loner aron ralston (James Franco)
finds the sticky end of solitude when heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trapped at the
bottom of a ravine, his right arm pinned by a boulder.
Like a steroidal Into the Wild, the movie follows aron to
the logical end of his lone-wolf lifestyle, leaving him with
nothing but his wits and the contents of his backpack. It
may take a while to recover from the movieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stomachturning climax, but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only because danny boyle
succeeds so thoroughly in getting under your skin. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Sam
Adams (Ritz Five)

All good tHings|Aandrew Jareckiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shrewd reimagining of the true crimes
involving robert durst and the 1982 disappearance of
his wife is disturbing, but Jareckiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assured presentation
makes this film electrifyingly stunning. In 1972, david
marks (ryan Gosling, as durst) meets and marries Katie
(Kirsten dunst); their domestic bliss is short-lived when
david starts acting out in increasingly weird and violent
ways. after Katie disappears, and david goes into â&#x20AC;&#x153;hiding,â&#x20AC;? his behavior gets downright peculiar. Jarecki coaxes
an amazing performance out of dunst; Gosling, in another
intense performance, rises to the challenge of making
david both oddly sympathetic and despicable. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Gary M.
Kramer (Ritz at the Bourse)
BlACk swAn|Aalthough itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s set in the world of ballet, darren aronofskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
movie hits a pitch that would normally be called operatic.
natalie Portman is provisionally cast in her first lead, but

she needs to prove she can dance both white and black
swan in Swan Lake. Portman nails the glacial perfection
of the first, but it takes bad girl mila Kunis to get her in
touch with her dark side. as Portmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s transformation
progresses, aronofsky makes over her body, as well; she
decomposes and renews in a manner worthy of a cronenberg heroine. The trouble is, Portmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role too closely
matches her own limitations. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.A. (Ritz East)

tHe CHroniCles of nArniA:
tHe VoyAge of tHe dAwn treAder|B
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader sets our puberty-stricken
heroes out on the water, an auspicious setting that
ensures any dull moment can be broken up by fanciful
distraction. back in narnia, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re picked up by the suddenly bearded Prince caspian (ben barnes), on a marine
mission to see some lords about some magical swords and
so forth. Family-friendly action sequences mostly make up
for the movieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shortcomings, which include ham-handed
life lessons and a few forehead-slapping â&#x20AC;&#x153;reminder: The
lion is actually Jesus!â&#x20AC;? moments. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Drew Lazor (Pearl, UA
69th St., UA Grant, UA Riverview)

tHe figHter|B+
While the true story of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Irishâ&#x20AC;? micky Ward (mark Wahlberg) has all the makings of a Rocky-style â&#x20AC;&#x153;triumph of the
human spirit,â&#x20AC;? david O. russell finds plenty of fodder for
his more caustic imaginings in Wardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family. The most
monumental obstacles Ward confronts come out of being
born into a large massachusetts clan seemingly intent
on undercutting any chance of success in the name of a
delusional family honor. russell at times succumbs to a
penchant for cheap caricature, never deciding between
black comedy or hardscrabble drama. but he wisely keeps

This story, of a Texas con artist whose
schemes were fueled by his love for
his cellmate, has roots in fact, but

How do you Know|B-

BEST PICTURE

GOLDEN GLOBE

ÂŽ

BEST PICTURE

4

liTTle FocKers|D+
Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not much to say about Little Fockers that you couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t guess from the
title. but if a Fockered-up Home Alone
is what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re after this holiday season,
think again: The kids in this film seriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
third (and hopefully last) installment
have no purpose except to recite lisped
one-liners and projectile vomit on ben
Stiller. most worrisome is that such
an all-star cast would collectively, or
individually, agree to participate in
such nonsense. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;C.H. (Pearl, UA 69th
St., UA Grant, UA Riverview)

THe KinGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sPeecH|B+
as the soon-to-be George VI, colin
Firth is a reluctant royal with a stutter that acts up around his domineering father. It grows bad enough

odds not only with the company, but
also with the u.K.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s male-dominated
unions. against these considerable
odds, their real-life protest against
sexual discrimination â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on which
nigel coleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s film is based â&#x20AC;&#x201D; paved
the way for the equal Pay act of 1970.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;C.F. (Ritz at the Bourse)

BlackSwan2010.com

GUIDE

COMING FEBRUARY 17
the naked city

charles Fergusonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new doc provides
a remarkably coherent, galling
analysis of the recent financial crisis,
focusing on the lack of consequences
for those who caused it. as interviewees respond to off-screen queries, the
drama comes in watching them think
through their answers, using their
expertise to explain or obfuscate. The
film insists on the culpability of individuals; that they are not suffering
consequences is a problem Ferguson
refuses to let alone. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Cindy Fuchs
(Ritz Five)

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ADVER TISING SUPPLEMENT

feature

coasts glibly on shiny visuals and
movie-star charm. Jim carrey plays
Steven russell, and ewan mcGregor
is his prison romance. Once the two
meet, the film finds its footing as a
lovesick farce. mcGregor is released,
carrey breaks out and tracks him
down, gets caught, in between passing himself off as anything likely to
generate fast income and few questions. carreyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s low-key performance
is commendably camp-free, but
without shtick to fall back on, he
canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get his hooks in. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.A. (Ritz at
the Bourse)

Female workers for Ford in dagenham, england, circa 1968, perform
whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been recently termed â&#x20AC;&#x153;unskilledâ&#x20AC;? labor, but theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re convinced
that as a group, they can make
demands of the auto giant, including equal pay. This means theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re at

MeGaMind|C+
Will Ferrell voices a misshapen villain with brightly hued skin who discovers itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more fulfilling to be a hero.
Sound familiar? The movieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s built
around the same old lazy pop-culture
riffs and classic-rock music cues.
Ferrellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s done far more interesting
voice work in live-action films than
he has here, and brad Pitt phones
it in as megamindâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heroic opposite.
but Tina Fey puts her back into it as

CHOOSE A CABLE SERVICE PROVIDER
WITH TECH CONSULTANT RUBEN REYES
WHETHER YOUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE A straight-up CrackBerry addict or a granny logging
online once a year to send her daughter a birthday e-card, you want a cable
service provider thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fast, easy to deal with, and headache-free. As owner
of information technology consulting firm Lyquix, Ruben Reyes knows a
thing or two about finding just that.

1

The first thing you should look for is a com-

Is it instantaneous or do you have to wait for

pany thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s available in your area. In Philly

the program to download? Can you see dif-

there are roughly six cable service providers, but

ferent On Demand shows in different rooms?

some of them must have cables laid first; and

Other features that might be appealing to you

others have dishes that arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t allowed in certain

are DVR and the ability to watch TV programs

neighborhoods or buildings. Simply go to each
companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Web site and check service availability
for your address to see whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s available to you.

2

A cable service provider is especially valuable if it bundles several
services. Usually, the more services you get with a single company, the

more money you save, and that can make or break the deal. Some offer tele-

on your computer.

4

For your Internet, decide how much speed you really need. For the vast
majority of households, 1Mbps per user is enough to browse the Web,

do work and watch movies. So if you have three people using the same connection simultaneously, 3Mbps is a good choice. One exception is online
gamers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they can consume a lot of bandwidth. Once youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve determined

vision, Internet and phone services through a single cable, and others offer

the right speed, compare prices and extras that you may receive, such as

Internet and phone service through partnerships with other companies.

free virus protection.

Decide which is best for you and plan accordingly.

3

When comparing companies, high-def TV is a hot topic. The most
important thing to count is the number of actual HD channels that

a provider offers. Another thing to consider is its On Demand capabilities:

A unique opportunity to
receive a full page of editorial
all about YOU facing your fullpage advertisement. Tell our
readers why your business is
exceptional and different from
your competitors AND all topics are exclusive â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one financial service, one restaurant by
cuisine, one cable service, etc.

5

Lastly, phones. The most important thing to focus on while comparing
phone options is price. Another thing to check is the equipment that

youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re getting as a battery backup â&#x20AC;&#x201D; you want to make sure youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll always
have a working phone, even during a blackout.

For a movie about a woman whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
lost her career and a man whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s being

Made in daGenHaM|B-

inside Job|A

has hidden to ensure he never really
dies. Harry and his besties traverse
landscapes magical and muggle alike,
wearing oversize sweaters, sulking
and bickering about which direction
theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going. Luckily, david yates
orchestrates a slew of exhilarating
sequences that remind us why J.K.
rowlingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s universe is so compelling.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;D.L. (Roxy, UA Riverview)

This is less a battle of sparkly-wand
wits and more an effete college roadtrip movie. a fuming Harry (daniel
radcliffe), enraged by the death of
dumbledore, sets off on a search
for the Horcruxes, soul fragments
Lord Voldemort (ralph Fiennes)

for him to seek help from an offbeat
australian, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey
rush); Speech boils down to a series
of confrontations between patient
and therapist. rushâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flamboyance
is tempered by Firthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s muted sorrow,
and his characterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gradual opening
gives Firth a chance to push past the
boundaries of his own interiority.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.A. (Ritz Five)

blackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s obnoxious slacker-makesgood persona. This Gulliver is a magazine mail-room drone whose crush
on travel editor amanda Peet leads to
an assignment in the bermuda Triangle â&#x20AC;&#x201D; best not to worry too much
about the plot inanities. all loose ends
are sewn up via a performance of edwin Starrâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Warâ&#x20AC;? that suggests that
the scriptâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final page read simply,
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fuck it â&#x20AC;&#x201D; insert Tenacious d shtick
here.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.B. (UA 69th St., UA Grant,
UA Riverview)

the agenda | food | classifieds

i love you PHilliP Morris|C+

12

more than any film in HISTORY

a&e

This is yet another adaptation that
takes only the idea of a man amongst
tiny people from its source, here
employed for another spin on Jack

[ movie shorts ]

28 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |

Gulliverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Travels|D-

indicted by the feds, nobody seems
particularly bothered. Lisa (reese
Witherspoon), a softball player just
cut from the team, distracts herself
with goofy, philandering matty
(Owen Wilson); meanwhile George
(Paul rudd) is being investigated for
a crime heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sure he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t commit.
Their lives intersect on a blind date,
and a love triangle with a predictable
ending ensues. How Do You Know lets
its characters fall in love during the
crappiest days of their lives â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but
how do you know their happy ending
isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just a band-aid for their bigger
problems? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Carolyn Huckabay (UA
69th St., UA Grant, UA Riverview)

the naked city | feature

all the direct brutality within the aggressive messiness of life outside the
ring. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Shaun Brady (Pearl, UA 69th
St., UA Grant, UA Riverview)

feature | the naked city
a&e
classifieds | food | the agenda

a Lois Lanian newscaster, spanning a
greater range than she has thus far in
the flesh. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.A. (UA Riverview)

Rabbit Hole|B
by the time Rabbit Hole opens, becca
and Howie (nicole Kidman and aaron
eckhart) have already lost their son,
a 4-year-old who dashed out in front
of a car eight months earlier. John
cameron mitchellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s film examines
their grief but avoids wallowing in

it, keeping a cool but unflinching
distance as the couple redefine their
lives in the presence of an overwhelming absence. nicole Kidman is perfectly cast as a woman defined by control;
itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to overlook aaron eckhart

as the husband more comfortable
displaying his pain, but his is perhaps
the more complex character â&#x20AC;&#x201D; trying
to hold on to every trace of his sonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
memory while pushing forward into a
redefined life. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.B. (Ritz Five)

RaRe expoRts: a
CHRistmas tale|B
In Finland, apocryphal tales of the
â&#x20AC;&#x153;realâ&#x20AC;? St. nicholas have a dark twist
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; their O.G. Santa was a cranky old
bastard who didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t give presents but
demanded them. director Jalmari
Helanderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s film spins this icy yarn
into a tale thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s part Raiders of the
Lost Ark, part Blair Witch Project:
Sub Zero Inc. drills atop a mountain
for a tomb where the native Saami
people allegedly buried the old goat
hundreds of years ago. When it
reaches the icy grave, the strangeness
starts. In comparison to its supernatural horror setup, the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s end
is a bit treacly â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but then again, it is
a christmas flick. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Brian Howard
(Ritz at the Bourse)

tHe tempest|D+
even with talent like Helen mirren,
david Straithairn and chris cooper
reciting the bardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lines, Julie Taymor
feels compelled to outfit The Tempest
with attacks by ravens, bees and
hellhounds, while ben Whishaw corkscrews in and out of corporeality like
a wood-nymph Gazoo. Shakespeare

doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t appear to be the source for her
visual fancies so much as an excuse
for them, with each aspect amplified
to such an extent that everything
threatens to drown out everything
else. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s such an unceasing assault
on the senses that even after all the
characters have been washed ashore,
the titular storm never seems to stop
raging. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.B. (Ritz Five)

but interchangeable Scotland yard
functionaries under the command of
a constantly frustrated Paul bettany.
The end result is that focus is repeatedly yanked away from stars Johnny

depp and angelina Jolie, and the
script contrives to keep them apart.
aside from one sequence set in a Venetian canal, meaningful glances and
endless conversations take precedence
over gunplay and movement, but this
isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a thinking manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s action film so
much as a dullardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.B. (Pearl, UA
69th St., UA Grant, UA Riverview)

tRon: legaCy|BThere are few things more dated than
1982â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tron, the blockbuster that
threw wisecracking hacker Kevin
Flynn (Jeff bridges) into a digital

Fresh out of college, aura (dunham)
makes an awkward return to a spacious manhattan loft owned by her
mother, a successful artist, where
her bratty younger sister bristles at
giving up her â&#x20AC;&#x153;special room.â&#x20AC;? dunham
doubles up on the Kubrickian chill
by shooting in widescreen; when she
and her sister talk through the wall of
their adjacent rooms, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re shot as
if theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in a dollhouse with the wall
pulled away, each pressed against the

edge of her own little box. but while her
observerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye is acute, dunham doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t
have much insight into her characters.
Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re sharply drawn, but theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all
edges. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.A. (Ritz at the Bourse)

tHe touRist|c
VO^^gV]c`aa[O`b^V]\SO^^P`]cUVbb]g]cPg

The Tourist spends as much time with
the watchers as the watched in the spy
game, but here the former are nothing

world ruled by polygonal airships
with dueling day-Glo jumpsuit warriors. Picking up years after Flynnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
disappearance, Tron: Legacy focuses
on his son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund),
who gets zapped by a teleportation
laser and finds himself on â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Grid.â&#x20AC;?
Flynn, turns out, has been trapped
inside the computer this entire time,
betrayed by the cLu program he
wrote to create a digital utopia. Sam,
hellbent on busting out, relies on his
â&#x20AC;&#x153;userâ&#x20AC;? advantages to combat cLu
and his battery-powered goons. The
visual power of Tron: Legacy is undeniable, but remember, this is a disney
flick, one with muddled storytelling
and puddle-deep character development. bridgesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; vintage Flynn is as
satisfying as a nostalgic atari session,
but Hedlund and Olivia Wilde are
mostly concerned with being pretty,
and michael Sheenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hammy turn as
a lascivious club owner is just a halfassed impression of the emcee from
Cabaret. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;D.L. (Pearl, UA 69th St.,
UA Grant, UA Riverview)

[ movie shorts ]

tRue gRit|B+
The coen brothersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; True Grit is uncharacteristically restrained, its images softened by the haze of frontier
dust. casting Jeff bridges as rooster
cogburn gives the character a slovenly air; when mattie ross (Hailee
Steinfeld) first makes contact with
him, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s through the wall of a privy.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;The jakes is occupiedâ&#x20AC;? is his only
response to her offer of cash for the
corpse of her fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s killer. Vengeance
in True Grit is a dirty business â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not
an eye for an eye, but something more
visceral, and inevitably less just. The
coens wrestle with moral issues, but
theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve rarely done so as nakedly as in
True Grit, and it turns out that transparency doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t suit them. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
beauty to True Grit, but not enough
depth. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.A. (Pearl, UA 69th St., UA
Grant, UA Riverview)
yogi beaR|F
yogi bear has never really been
anyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favorite. The picnic basket
thief is simply too shallow a creation
to evoke more than a few chuckles.
The problem for a filmmaker tasked
with translating him into a feature
film, then, is how to build an entire
narrative around such a thin conceit.
The answer, in this case, is to make
yogi a supporting character in his
own film and to focus instead on the

Submit information by mail (City
Paper Listings, 123 Chestnut
St., Third Floor, Philadelphia,
PA 19106) or e-mail (listings@
citypaper.net) to Josh Middleton.
Details of the event — date, time,
address of venue, telephone number
and admission price — should be
included. Incomplete submissions
will not be considered, and listings
information will not be accepted
over the phone.

WU-Tang Clan/
alien arChiTeCT
These days, Wu-Tang doesn’t
sport the dangerous allure or
the weird éclat they had in
their start. Enter the Wu-Tang

(1993), Wu-Tang Forever (1997)
and The W (2000) were powerfully sinister-silly efforts where
you were never quite certain
what was going to sound off
next — even when you were
blaring them on repeat. and
you did put “Wu-Tang clan
ain’t nuthing ta F’ Wit,”
“c.r.e.a.m.,” “careful (click,
click),” and “Protect ya neck”
on and on and on over and over.
Then Ol’ dirty bastard died,
rZa became Quentin Tarantino’s best friend and method
man became a comedian. but
Ghostface Killlah became a
poet, and GZa and raekwon
released formidable solo efforts,
too. The Wu’s 2009 reunion disc
Chamber Music is promising,
and if you don’t mind waiting
until like midnight (the clan’s
usual start time), you’ll be
reminded why you shouldn’t
f’ wit’ ’em. Then again, getting
there early means catching
one of my Philly picks to click,
alien architect. The caucasoid rapper that his mom
calls devin cohen has a hard
fluttering voice that can race

or slow fluidly and frantically
like an albert ayler sax solo
with a soundtrack of scorchedearth live free jazz to match.
recently, though, he’s taken to
utilizing a solid sample-happy
electronic-muzikdJ, and the
alien’s architecture is eerily
reminiscent (in a very good
way) of the likes of mc 900 Ft.
Jesus and the disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy. This should
be your new year’s eve eve.
—a.d. amorosi
Thu., Dec. 30, 10 p.m., $41.50-$44, with
DJ Image, Trocadero, 1003 Arch St.,
215-922-6888, thetroc.com.

[ visual art ]

MiChael
PeTerson
Viewing “evolution/revolution,” a show by michael Peterson, is like seeing a miniencapsulation of innovations
in the field of fine-art wood
turning in the last two decades.
Traditionally, sculptures of
this genre clearly looked like
they were made with a lathe

— think bowls and vases.
Gradually, abstract forms were
introduced. Peterson, a master
woodworker, helped spur the
changes through his imaginative investigations on the
nature of natural wood. more
recently he’s dispensed with
the lathe entirely. regardless,
his innate sense of the wonderment and spirituality of wood
is steadfast. newer pieces look
like mysterious landscapes, or
weathered twisted chunks of
metal. Whatever the vintage of
his work, they’re all marvelous testaments to Peterson’s
understanding of the depth of
possibilities in the material
at hand.
—deni Kasrel
Through Feb. 19, free, Wood Turning
Center, 501 Vine St., 215-923-8000,
woodturningcenter.org.

[ theater ]

The Three
MUskeTeers
“Should I do it?” will become
kids’ new rallying cry after see-

away, with the off-broadway
hit The Understudy at the
Wilma Theater. Known locally
for Bad Dates (which won a
2007 barrymore award for
actress Susan riley Stevens
at act II Playhouse), rebeck
has penned a dozen plays,
two novels, scripts for Law
& Order, and Free Fall Zone,
a hilariously cynical writing
memoir. Her acerbic wit shines
in The Understudy, a clash of
stage, screen and literature in
which a Hollywood action star
finagles a role in Franz Kafka’s
newly discovered play, but feels
undermined by his understudy.

Lounge w/ Toney m., ryan T., ed
blammo, Shawn ryan. It’s solidgold good times as the speakers spit
out nothing but dancefloor grooves
for you to ring in the new year with
style, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. $7.

Fluid

4014 Walnut St.,
215-573-3234

<

Hip-hop
House
Latin
Progressive
House
Reggae

n hUrrah M O t @ medusa

4912 baltimore ave.

rotunda

G
t
i
s

fiercest lady dJs in the scene come
together to smash you up. call for
price.

y
!
>
z
P

Rock/Pop
Techno
Top 40/
Hip-hop/ R&B
Trance
World

brand Gravy. They got the no stress
option for ya they bringin’ that bashment heat, soca fiyah and bhangra
vibes extra proper to ring in the new
year. $10.
n MaKinG tiMe/r5 neW yearS
eVe FreaKOUt 1 O t y @ 90 de-

DJ Jazzy JeFF
1 G @ Blockley Pourhouse. For the first time in his career, DJ Jazzy Jeff will

be spinning on New Year’s Eve in the city where he started his career. Ringing
in 2011 with his playful mixes of old-school hip-hop and funked-up soul and
R&B will undoubtedly set you in motion for your most danceable year yet. And
if you’re not careful, it may also be your drunkest — $85 admission includes a
buffet and a six-hour top-shelf open bar. —Josh Middleton

and weekly guests. Fishtown’s
newest weekly punk and rock ’n’ roll
party for you to go get all wasted and
shout curse words and jump up and
down. call for price.

Mon., Jan. 3
n BaCK 2 BaSiCS MOndayS
1 e G t @ Silk city w/dozia, ron

clark, b2b band and guests. One
of Philly’s legendary long-running
nights — just another reason why
mondays don’t have to be lame. $7.
n SOUled OUt W e @ The raven

the disco era to now, is gonna pop
your nye night off oh so nicely. $30.

w/Statik. The legendary Philly dJ
from Illvibe collective holds it down

n dUtty ChUtney nye 1 < P @

Fluid w/dJ mandip, dJ m-ski, new

n rOCKS OFF W y @ barbarella

w/edward b. Gieda, daniel Kishbaugh, Todd Terlecki, eric Kohlhofer

@ barbary w/dJ SnackPak, dJ
breakfast, guests. midweek romp to
get down with ’80s punk precedents,
’60s surf psychedelics and more.
no cover.
n SPin CyCle W U e G @ elena’s
Soul w/dJ danophonic. Get yaself
down to university city for all the
funk, soul, breaks and classics that
you can take to get over the hump!
call for price.
n Kandyland WedneSdayS
1 t y > @ bleu martini w/robbie

NEW YEAR’S
EVE ON ICE
To celebrate the big ’11,
Philadelphia is pulling out some
extra booms and bangs. For
those who are either turning in
early, or who can’t get enough of
the sky-glowing gloriousness,
the city is putting on an extra
fireworks show at 6 p.m. in addition to its midnight blowout.
So while the sky’s warming up
with all the sparkle, you can
keep it chilly down below at
River Rink’s 17th annual New
Year’s Eve on Ice soirée. Penn’s
Landing makes an ideal spot
to dazzle the crowd with that
Michelle Kwan triple salchow
you’ve been practicing. Expect

to do it completely sober,
though: There’ll be plenty of
food and drinks to go around,

27

— a filmmaker, playwright,
singer and composer — has
hiccupped and pleaded his way
through an array of spooky
rockabilly-based songs that
summon the ghosts of Gene
Pitney, Carl Perkins and Elvis.
I can’t emphasize the spooky
element enough. What he does
never grazes the tip of ’50s
pastiches or tribute; instead,
the high-haired vocalist/instrumentalist’s songs on eccentric
LPs such as Open Your Robe
and My Prom are pockmarked
by the most ominous piano
sounds to grace vinyl. Weiner
is menacing whether he’s bel-

lowing what he calls kept-man
anthems (“What Size Shoe”) or
dangerous romancers (“Wonderful Boy”). Then there’s Low
Cut Connie, Weiner’s new band
with pals from the U.K., where
he tours relentlessly. Cut from
the same cloth as Ladyfingers,
LCC burns that cloth wholesale
with pure raw swamp rock ’n’
roll. “No BS, here,” says Weiner.
“It’s Stones/Jerry Lee/Cramps
and people will boogie and
pee themselves when they
hear it.” The “it” here is LCC’s
debut CD — Get Out the Lotion
— that Weiner will debut on
New Year’s Eve at Old Swedes’
Church. Why there? It’s got a
piano — a must for any Weiner
gig. “Plus the sexton of the
church puts on shows there
every few months and is a big
Ladyfingers fan,” says Weiner.
A hotter and heavier happy
new years you won’t find.

the agenda

unbelievable than Chris Faith
and Brad DePlanche’s shaving
cream duel as the “Should I do
it?” Hairy Barbiaris — is that
yet again, People’s Light creates a terrific, brand-new, fully
produced large-cast musical.
Take that, $65 million Broadway debacle Spider-Man!

[ the agenda ]

the naked city | feature | a&e

in New Jersey! More amazing
than Samantha Bellomo’s fight
and dance choreography, more
outrageous than Lazar’s flirtatious audience forays, more

years now. Their new year’s gig
at the north Star promises to be
a multi-hour spectacle, including an all-beatles set, some new
songs that’ll turn up on dada’s
forthcoming album (their first
since 2004), and a “bootleg” of
the evening’s proceedings you
can take home with you. Talk

songs (and maybe even newer
ones), though the guys are sure
to plumb their extensive back
catalog throughout the night.
Patterson Hood has referred to
Go-Go Boots as a “r&b murder”
album. What does that mean?
Who knows, but the Truckers
seem to be doing some good, oldfashioned genre-messing.
—eric Schuman

[ rock/pop ]

Drive-By
Truckers

seRved witH Baked potato aNd CHoiCe of House salad oR Cup
of Homemade soup. fRom 4pm daily.

every saturday at 9pm

about seeing the past, present
and future all at once.

rise and shine! It’s time to greet
the new year! all right, your
hesitation is understood, but
make sure you roll out of bed
in time to catch the return of
the drive-by Truckers. Having
hunkered down in their studio
around the end of 2009, the
Truckers produced enough
material for at least two new
albums. The first, The Big ToDo, was released in march, and
the next, Go-Go Boots (aTO records), is nearly ready to be let
loose. expect a good portion of
their show to feature those new

Dragon king
dominic angelella tends to
sprint from one project to the
next, but dragon King is one
he could stand to linger on for
a while. Since we first told you
about the Port richmond singer-

[ the agenda ]

the naked city | feature | a&e

guitarist’s electropop collaboration with South Philly producer
Ritz Reynolds in our September
Music Issue, the band made
its live debut at The Ox and
dropped the excellent Warriors
EP via its Bandcamp page. The
set adds range to Angelella’s pallet: the acrobatic rap of “Wolfboy”

moves in a Mad Decent swagger;
“Wild Night” is all four-on-thefloor and festive. But then there’s
the introverted sensitivity and
soaring vocal harmonies of
“Altamont Sunrise” and the title
track. More please.

“I’ve been super blessed. I’ve
had a lot of amazing opportunities this year — and I’m
hoping for more,” says Clay
Ross, guitarist and singer
with Matuto, calling from the
middle of a dust devil of a tour
swirling around his Southern
birthplace. Every year he books
a reunion trip with high school

Though they’re outspoken and
active against many kinds of
political wrongdoings, Philly
Against War’s latest gathering
gets back to the group’s roots.
Always on the lookout for unsettling governmental actions,
these rabble-rousers are the

latest generation of organized
outrage. Their blog fills the gap
between meetings and rallies,
but it’s the face-to-face events,
like this teach-in planning
meeting, that highlight the
group as righteous educators.
Even if your political stance
doesn’t mesh with theirs,
and even if war and injustice
continue, reaching a point of

musical buds and gets paid to
return to South Carolina for the
holidays. The rest of the year
Ross is a member of Canadian
fiddler April Verch’s band, but
his principal joy is Matuto, the
Brazilian group that lets him
fold all his jazz and old-time
licks into one juicy North-toSouth American stew. Having
partners who also master a
breadth of styles makes it all
possible. Accordionist Rob Curto
is known for his work with
Lila Downs, but is said to be
the foremost forró interpreter
outside Brazil. Drummer Richie
Barshay met Ross while both
were studying music in Brazil.
Between Matuto gigs he tours
with Esperanza Spalding. Rob
Hecht’s fiddle moves seamlessly
from Norman Blake nuevo-Appalachian to samba.

Food news, recipes, menu exclusives

citypaper.net/mealticket

classifieds | food

the agenda

a&e | feature | the naked city

Let the feeding
frenzy begin.

Thu 12/30- SOLD OuT!
R5 PReSenTS

MeWithoutYou
BuRieD BeDS

FRi 12/31
JOhnny BRenDaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S anD PhiLeBRiTy PReSenTS

the NYe SNoWflake Ball
at JBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PartY MaNSioN

5 SeTS OF DJS PLuS SPeciaL JameSOnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BeveRageS!
DOWnSTaiRS: muSic FOR Sin anD high TimeSWiTh SWiveL chaiRS DJS
FROm 9P-2a! nO cOveR!
SaT 1/1

Watch the earlybird fireworks at Penn's
Landing then head to 4th and South and
enjoy Copa's famous burgers or fancier fare like
$15.95 prime rib or Maryland Style Crabcakes.
Kitchen open until 1 a.m. for munchies after
the fireworks. $5 GREY GOOSE COCKTAILS.

the naked city | feature | a&e

DO IT

TODAY

the agenda
food | classifieds

[ join uS ]

New Year’s eve
DiNNer 6pm-10pm live music 9pm-11pm
karaoke 11pm-1:30am

[ MEnu ] $50/person
Choice of one option from each of the courses below